In A Young Girl's Heart
by sashax13
Summary: When the Halliwell sisters are children, Phoebe struggles to keep up with her wiser, well knowing, and more talented older sisters’ newfound teenage identities. On New Years Eve, Prue suggests the sisters sleep upstairs in the attic for the night.


**In A Young Girl's Heart**

by sashax13

_Summary: The story takes place when the Halliwell sisters are children; Phoebe struggles to keep up with her wiser, well knowing, and more talented older sisters' newfound teenage identities. On New Years Eve, Prue suggests the sisters sleep upstairs in the attic for the night in preparation to get into some good, old-fashioned trouble. When forced to spend the night together, can Phoebe figure out how to live up to her sisters' ideals?_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the show Charmed or the names of characters associated with that show. This story is for entertainment purposes only._

_--------------------------------- _

The three sisters sat on the couch in the living room, snuggling against their grams and staring sleepy-eyed at the television as the hallway clock chimed midnight and the ball dropped in New York City in the far east coast. 3… 2… 1…

"Happy new year!" The girls shouted in unison. At the sound of the bell, Grams stood up and gave all of her granddaughters New Year's hugs. They shrieked jumped around each other, exchanging quick little hugs and throwing confetti up in the air that they'd been saving in a box since last year. The Halliwells could hear firecrackers outside, despite the ban on fireworks inside city limits.

The coming of the New Year gave the Halliwell sisters a new burst of energy. Although they'd been ready to fall asleep on the couch just moments before, now they were all wide-awake. When the girls ran out of breath, they sank back onto the sofa, wishing there was more excitement to come. But after midnight, there was nothing new to anticipate. None of the sisters wanted to go to bed just yet, however. They were just too pepped up.

"Why don't we do resolutions now?" Penny Halliwell suggested after her granddaughters had calmed down. "What are you girls going to do better this year than you did last year?"

"I know what I'm going to do!" Piper volunteered. "I'm gonna get A's in every class." She was secretly borrowing Prue's resolution from the previous year. Piper hoped no one would call her a copycat for using it, but Prue didn't seem to notice. The eldest Halliwell sister looked distracted, like she was thinking about something else at the moment, and didn't appear to have even heard it.

"That's a good resolution." Grams agreed. Piper beamed.

"Phoebe, what about you?"

"I can't think of any." Phoebe confessed. She'd been thinking but couldn't come up with one as good as Piper's.

"I can think of a good one for you." Grams stepped in. "How about trying not to fight or argue with your sisters at all until next year?" She suggested gently.

Penny knew that tomorrow Phoebe, as well as her sisters, would be cranky and sleep deprived. The sisters were bound to snap at each other all day. Phoebe lately especially, often feeling left out as the youngest sibling, acted very defensive towards her older sisters.

"For a whole year? _Phoebe?_ Oh, please. Like that's ever gonna happen." Prue put in, deciding to tune in to their conversation.

"It is too gonna happen!" Phoebe immediately contradicted. "I'm gonna be nice to you for a whole_ year_. Piper too."

"I know you can do it, Phoebe." Grams said encouragingly to Phoebe, then turned to Prue and gave her a scolding look.

Prue, in turn, rolled her eyes up towards the ceiling as soon as her grandmother looked away. Though she was the oldest, Prue was not necessarily always the wisest of the three sisters. Often, instead of setting a good example, she provoked them and occasionally started fights for the silliest reasons. Prue at fourteen had just started high school. She was not a little girl anymore, but on the other hand, she was still far from the mature adult she would one day become.

"What's your resolution gonna be, Prue?" Piper asked politely.

Prue smiled mischievously. "_My_ resolution is a secret." She tempted Piper.

"Ooooh! What is it?" _This_ spiked Phoebe's curiosity, too.

"Oh, I can't tell you, Phoebe. That's why it's called a secret," Prue teased, smiling this time.

"That's not fair! You can't have _secret_ resolutions." Phoebe complained.

"Yeah! You have to tell us, Prue," Piper pressed. Keeping the resolution a secret only made Prue's sisters want to know more. Now, they were banding together to gang up on her, two against one.

"How about this." Prue pretended to carefully consider before answering, "I'll tell you what my resolution is… but only _after_ it comes true."

"That sounds fair enough." Penny decided to end this particular sisterly squabble before it began.

She yawned. "Girls, it's late! I think it's time we all went to bed."

But the sisters weren't ready to go to sleep just yet.

They began to protest. Please, couldn't they stay up for a little while? They weren't tired at all, just a little while more? They bargained and pleaded, promising they wouldn't make noise or break any rules.

"Please, Grams? It'll be like a sleepover," Prue invented on the spot. "A sleepover _filled_ with sisterly love." She sprung onto Piper, hugging her spontaneously. Piper grinned happily.

Piper knew that if she kept it up a little longer, she might be able to bug the secret resolution out of Prue, and vowed to do so before the end of the night. And Phoebe, last but not least, was determined not to be left out of the fun. She smiled and jumped onto Piper, too, transforming it into a group hug.

"All right." Grams agreed. "But don't make any noise. If anyone wakes me up, you're _all_ going back to your own beds. Are you going to stay downstairs?"

"Nope." Prue answered and smiled a wide, innocent-looking smile. "I was thinking we'd sleep in the _attic_."

The attic was far big enough for three small girls, and it offered endless entertainment. Prue loved to look at all of the old stuff in the boxes, whenever she got the chance. It was dark and creepy and sleeping up there made the sisters feel like heroines of a movie. Plus, the attic was usually off-limits to the girls. Prue could remember a time when they had been allowed to come and go as they pleased, but within the last few years, Grams had forbid it except for special occasions. Prue was banking on the fact that tonight's occasion was just special enough to bend the rules.

"Yeah. We'll bring our own sleeping bags." Piper added, liking the idea.

"Be careful, then." Penny sighed and rattled off the safety speech. "Make sure you wear socks because the floor can give you splinters. And don't stay up all night- I'd better not see you snapping at each other tomorrow morning because you didn't get enough sleep."

"We won't. We'll be on really good behavior. And quiet." Phoebe promised.

Grams smiled. "You three had better go get ready, then, while I get dressed for bed."

About ten minutes later the attic was set up for a slumber party. Phoebe had dragged the sleeping bags up the stairs one by one and set them on the floor with the heads pointing towards the middle, so the girls could whisper to each other as they fell asleep. Piper found board games and set them on the floor in the center of the sleeping bags in a neat pile. Prue cooked popcorn, her signature dish, and dumped it into a big bowl for the sisters to share. Phoebe had wanted to bring the TV upstairs to watch movies on, but none of the girls were strong enough to carry it up two flights of stairs, and there was nowhere to plug it in, so they settled without it.

Penny came upstairs to make sure the girls were dressed in their pajamas, with their teeth and hair brushed and their faces washed. She kissed each granddaughter goodnight and headed back downstairs to her own bedroom.

A few minutes after their Grams left, the sisters decided to play Clue, one of their favorite board games. Prue picked the red piece, of course, just like she always did. Prue had many times claimed Miss Scarlet was her lucky game piece and as a result, she never let anyone else pick first. Prue didn't want anyone to pick Miss Scarlet before she got the chance.

Piper settled with Mrs. Peacock because she liked blue, and that left Phoebe with Mrs. White, Mr. Boddy's old maid with white hair. Phoebe didn't really like having to be Mrs. White, but she would rather pretend to be the old maid than have to be one of the male characters. None of the sisters liked Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, or Mr. Green, and since Prue and Piper always picked first, it meant Phoebe was_ always _stuck with Mrs. White. She was a good sport about it, though, because it meant her older sisters would let Phoebe join in the game.

Prue won the first round of Clue by correctly the murder scene as Professor Plum, in the Dining Room, with the wrench. "You guys need to work on your poker faces." Prue declared, basking in the glory of her win.

"I never got how a wrench is supposed to be a weapon." Piper frowned. "How do they know Professor Plum just wasn't trying to fix a broken pipe in the dining room?"

"Because there aren't any pipes in the dining room." Prue said matter-of-factly. "And hey, I'm sure you could kill a guy using a wrench if you wanted to."

"Ew! Prue, that's gross!" Piper protested.

Prue laughed. "Let's play again!" She announced and began shuffling the cards and setting up the pieces.

Phoebe meanwhile was trying to picture what kind of murder scene would require a wrench. The image reminded her of the kinds of movies Prue watched with her friends when Grams wasn't home, often late at night after Phoebe was supposed to go to bed. She shuddered and tried to think of something else. Phoebe rolled the dice and moved Mrs. White to the kitchen.

"I'm going to guess Miss Scarlet. In the Kitchen. With…" Phoebe thought. "The rope?"

But she was wrong.

They played two more games of Clue before the sisters got bored and Prue won both times. Piper sometimes got close to winning, but her face always betrayed her thoughts and made it easier for Prue to guess Piper's cards.

"I'm tired of Clue." Piper said. "Prue, will you braid my hair?" She yawned and stretched out on her sleeping bag, pushing her long hair up over her face with her hands so that it drooped over her eyes. She looked like Cousin It, the monster from the Adams Family.

"No, I want to!" Phoebe protested. She had recently learned to braid from Grams. Phoebe sprung at the opportunity to play with Piper's hair because it was so long and pretty. Prue's was cut short to be more stylish, but Piper had spent years growing her hair out to the length it was now.

"Well, other game do you want to play?" Prue asked, disappointed that the topic had changed and her sisters were no longer interested. "We have Guess Who, Monopoly, The Game of Life, Chinese Checkers…" Prue laid all of the game boxes out flat on the attic floor so they were all visible

"None. No more games." Piper said idly. She could feel Phoebe's fingers on the back of her neck, twisting her hair into a long plait down her back. Piper let her head rest on the soft pillow contentedly. "Maybe we should just go to sleep?"

"_I'm_ not going to sleep yet!" Prue insisted. "If you and Phoebe want to go to bed early, then go ahead, but _I'm_ going to stay up all night. Until the sun comes up." She challenged.

"I'm not sleepy!" Phoebe chirped eagerly, still toying with Piper's hair. "I'll stay up with you, Prue."

"Okay, okay, then me, too." Piper added reluctantly, not wanting to be left out of the fun.

"Hey. You know what would be really fun?" Prue asked, casting the games aside. "Since we're up in the attic and all…"

"What? What would be really fun, Prue?" Phoebe asked curiously. She tied Piper's braid with a stretchy hair band.

"Playing dress-up." Prue announced.

"You said you don't like dress up anymore because you're too old." Piper reminded in an accusatory tone.

"Yeah, I know I've said that before, but that was before I knew we were coming up here." Prue disagreed.

"This attic, you see," She explained happily, "is where Grams keeps all the good stuff!" Prue gestured around with her arms in the air, turning slowly as though she were a realtor showing off the room to buyers.

"There's a big, old chest somewhere around here where she keeps all of these old clothes. Like poodle skirts from the fifties, and go-go boots, and hers and mom's wedding dresses. I think she even has gloves and fans. Real ladies used to always wear long gloves and carry fans around with them, before they had air conditioning." Prue didn't know this for sure; it was a tidbit she had picked up somewhere. Possibly history class, but probably not. It was more likely she'd seen it on the movies.

"Ooooh, that sounds nice. Let's look for the trunk." Piper said sitting back up and stretching her arms.

"I already know where the trunk is. It's there. But there's a whole bunch of stuff in the way. I think we're going to have to move the boxes." She pointed across the room by the wall next to the windows. And old, rectangular mahogany trunk rested there, covered with dust and big, heavy boxes.

"Oh, man. That's a lot of stuff over there." Piper stated.

"Not really," Prue disagreed. "All we have to do is get the boxes off. Come help me." Prue hugged one of the boxes and slid it off of the trunk. She let go accidentally, startled by the weight, and it landed on the attic floor with a loud _thud_, stirring up the settled dust nearby.

"Ooooooh, Prue! You're going to wake up Grams!" Phoebe shrieked.

"Shhhhhh!" Prue hissed. _"You're_ going to wake up Grams, yelling like that! Be quiet!"

"But _you're_ going to wake her up first." Phoebe whispered back.

"Well, I can't hear her coming upstairs yet." Piper quickly intervened. "So maybe Grams is still asleep."

"No thanks to you," Prue told Phoebe. "No more yelling, okay?"

Phoebe hesitated, deciding whether or not to continue the argument. "Okay." She answered finally.

Prue was now lifting a box that was nearly as big as she was. "Wow. This is heavy. What the heck does Grams keep in here?" she wondered aloud.

"I'll help," Phoebe volunteered and pushed the other side of the box towards Prue, who, startled, caught the end of it before it slid all the way off.

"Don't do that! It'll fall again." Prue said sharply. "Piper, come help me," she added. The two elder sisters hunched over the very heavy box, carefully moving it one step at a time out of the way.

"I didn't mean to push it off." Phoebe grumbled.

"It's okay, Phoebe," Piper told her. "Me and Prue just didn't want you to get hurt, that's all."

"Yeah, Phoebe, I didn't think you were strong enough to carry it." Prue agreed.

"Let's open the chest!" Piper cried. She unlatched the trunk- it wasn't locked- and lifted the lid. "Oooooh!" She squealed softly, pulling out a dusty, silky sequined white wedding dress that would have been quite stylish in the fifties that had been laid out on the top. "Look, Prue!"

She held it up in front of her. It looked a little big for her, but Piper slipped it on over her nightgown anyway. The hem dragged on the floor and the bust was much too big, but she adored the princess waistline and puffy sleeves, and relished in the long, full skirt. Piper twirled in a circle.

"One of you come zip me up!" she demanded. Prue hurried over and attended to the dress.

"Wow, I don't think I've seen this dress before." Prue said eyeing Piper's dress. "It looks really old- Probably Grams's. She's never showed me it."

"There's another one!" Phoebe cried pulling out an entirely separate wedding dress. This one was cut differently and not so detailed. It had long sleeves and a sweetheart neckline, and was nearly twice as big as Phoebe.

"Wait, that one I _have_ seen." Prue said looking at Phoebe's dress. "I think that's Grams's dress, too!" she giggled. "Mom told me that Grams got married a bunch of times."

"I want to get married a bunch of times." Phoebe proclaimed. "Then I can have fifty wedding dresses!"

"Getting married is not about the dress, Phoebe." Prue corrected her. "It's about a cute boy! When you marry him, he can't date anyone else, and neither can you."

"Except if you marry somebody else, right?" Phoebe added.

"Well, you just don't ever marry anyone else. You stay with the one person." Prue explained.

"Grams didn't." Piper pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Prue agreed. "But I'm not going to be like Grams, at least."

"I am!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Prue, is Mom's wedding dress in this trunk?" Piper asked walking back over and peering into the contents.

"I don't know." Prue answered truthfully, following her sister to investigate. Phoebe, in turn, followed Prue. There were boxes laid along the bottom of the trunk, labeled "Extras" and "Miscellaneous".

"I want to look in this box," Piper said tugging at the flaps of the "Extras" box. They flew open all at once. There was a hodgepodge of things inside, from old books and magazines to women's shoes, a journal, a red sweater that looked too small for Grams, old-looking dolls, a bolt of purple fabric, and what looked like a section of a tree cut out thick and flat, like a placemat, and shoved in sideways into the box, that didn't appear to have any function at all. Prue recognized most of the items, though she hadn't seen them in years.

"That's mom's stuff." Prue said, almost in awe, the memories coming back to life at the sight of the items in the cardboard box before her. "Look, that's her sweater. Her books, too. Mom liked to read romances, but Grams hated the books she read. And those dolls from when she was little, they always used to scare me." She laughed halfheartedly.

Her sisters listened earnestly. Sometimes when Prue talked about their mother, she told stories of the way things used to be. Grams did, too. Other times, Prue refused to talk about her at all. Now, though, it seemed she was almost enjoying herself reminiscing.

"Mom was going to sew purple curtains for my room," Prue touched the folded bolt of fabric. "But she never finished. No wonder Grams put it in this box- Grams can't sew at all."

"What's this?" Phoebe pulled out the heavy piece of polished wood, using both arms. It was big compared to a girl as little as she was. She set it down on the floor awkwardly, as gently as she could. "Look, Prue!"

It looked like it might be a board game- except there were no squares, map, game pieces, or slots for cards. Twenty-six letters were carved into the wood, the whole English letter alphabet. There was an odd, three-pointed Celtic design in the dead center and a set of Roman numerals beneath it.

"Turn it over, there's something on the back of it." Piper noticed. Phoebe slipped her fingers under the edge and pushed the board over, letting it land upside down with a _thump_.

Phoebe jumped. "Oops. Sorry." She muttered.

All three girls tensed and waited, frozen, listening for footsteps in case their grandmother came up to check on them, ready to leap into their sleeping bags and pretend to be asleep at a moment's notice if need be. When none came, they relaxed, letting out their breaths in one collaborated whooshing noise.

"It's okay. I think we're safe now." Prue confirmed.

Piper unpeeled a piece of tape along the back of the wooden slab, with it a small triangle piece that looked a little like an oversized, wooden guitar pick with a decorative, or perhaps ritualistic hole in the center of the wood and another tiny triquetra like the one on the main piece inscribed near the point.

"I know what this is- it's a spirit board." Prue finally spoke. "It's Mom's. There's a message from her, look."

There was indeed a message written on the wood.

It read:

To my three beautiful girls. May this give you the light to find the shadows. The power of three will set you free. Love, Mom

"Read it out loud, Prue." Phoebe requested.

Prue repeated the message out loud for Phoebe. "Phoebe, you _can_ read, you know." She added scornfully.

"I like it better when you say it out loud." Phoebe decided. In truth, she could've read the message in her head, but sometimes certain words fooled her. In some cases, she didn't recognize a word until she heard it out loud, and tricky words like "light", that had silent letters, confused her. Prue and Piper, bright girls who always did well in school, even when they were young, often got impatient with their less talented younger sister.

"What does it do? What's a Spirit Board, Prue?" Piper asked curiously turning the board over once more in her hands so that it faced right side up. "Is it a game?"

"Nope. It's not a game at all," Prue said mysteriously. "Mom showed me how to use it one time, even though she was saving it for us when we grew up. Want to know how it works?"

"Yes!" Her sisters answered in unison.

"Mom taught me it's a magical device that can talk to dead spirits. Or, if there are ghosts your house, they can talk to you." Prue explained matter-of-factly.

"What's this for?" Piper held up the triangular pointer.

"You put it on the board with your hands on top, and then it moves and stops on different letters. The letters spell out the message." Prue told her. "It's supposed to move all by itself, because really the ghosts are moving it. At least, I think so. I never really figured out that part."

"You think there are ghosts in here?" Piper shivered at the thought. Suddenly sleeping in the attic late at night didn't seem like such a good idea after all.

"Maybe they're friendly ghosts." Phoebe offered hopefully. "I want to see if I can get that pointer to move!"

"Or maybe they're _scaaaary_, like in a horror movie!" Prue said making big, googly eyes and waving her hands at Piper.

"Prue, stop!" Piper whined and covered her eyes. "You're going to make me scream!"

"Okay, whatever," Prue reluctantly complied, rolling her eyes.

Phoebe meanwhile positioned herself criss-cross applesauce on the floor as if she were meditating, eyes shut tight and imagination running all over the place. She tried to concentrate, hard, and listen for ghosts, begging them silently to make the pointer move beneath her fingertips.

Her sisters realized what she was up to.

"Phoebe, it doesn't really work, just so you know." Prue informed her. "It's only pretend."

"I don't care." Phoebe argued, eyes still closed. "I want to do this anyway!"

"Well, okay, but it's still fake." Prue responded coolly.

"Maybe it only works for people who believe in magic still." Phoebe replied, borrowing the oldest line in the book.

"Whatever." Prue said offhandedly. Although she'd been interested in the mysterious artifact when Phoebe had first pulled it from the box, she was starting to get bored now. Prue yawned. Then, Piper realized how tired she was and yawned, too, since yawns are contagious in that way. Phoebe, however, stubbornly remained as still as stone.

_C'mon, ghosts,_ Phoebe begged. _Please, work?_ She sensed her sisters were getting tired of this activity and were ready to go back to the box for more entertainment. Phoebe decided to make a bold move to stir up some excitement.

"Prue!" Phoebe shouted in an excited voice and, while peeking through closed eyelids, deliberately moved the pointer to the "H" on the Spirit Board. "Look, a message! Piper, look!" She paused for a moment, and then moved it to the "E".

"H, E," Piper said out loud. Phoebe moved to the "L", and then, faster as she grew more and more excited, "P".

"Help." Prue summarized, unimpressed.

"It's a dead person that needs our help!" Phoebe squealed.

"Really?" Piper's eyes grew wide. "Is that the whole message? What are we supposed to do?" she twirled the end of her braid nervously. Piper hated ghost stories. This made her uneasy.

"We don't need to do anything." Prue replied. "It's not real, Piper. Phoebe's just trying to fool us by pushing the pointer around with her hands."

"No, I'm not!" Phoebe cried as her eyelids flew open. "It's a real ghost!" she insisted, using her Pretend Innocent voice that she always used to keep out of trouble. She'd used the same tone when she cut the hair off of Piper's Barbie doll one time and still hadn't ever gotten in trouble for it. Unfortunately, Prue and Piper knew this disguise well and saw right through it this time, too.

"No. It was your fingers pushing the pointer to spell out a false message that you probably just made up." Prue replied carelessly.

"No! It wasn't me!" Phoebe argued although she knew it was hopeless and Prue was right.

"Yes, it was!" Prue snapped back. "Ghosts aren't real. Magic isn't real. You just cannot talk to the dead. Not even with a Spirit Board." She sighed.

"Phoebe, you can still pretend if you want." Piper offered. "But don't make anything up again, okay?"

Phoebe didn't answer. She knew she'd lost the argument but refused to give in anyways. She still believed that magic existed in real life. She _wished _that magic worked in real life.

"Besides, you were breaking your new year's resolution, anyway." Prue added. "Arguing with me and all that."

"No, you were arguing with me." Phoebe replied.

"No, you were." Prue insisted.

"No! YOU are!" Phoebe cried, frustrated.

"See? You're doing it _right now_." Prue replied with a triumphant smile on her face.

"If you guys don't stop, then I'll go downstairs and wake up Grams!" Piper threatened suddenly.

Both her sisters fell silent. Phoebe glared. Prue wore a taunting expression that said, _Say something else. I dare you._

"Prue, you didn't even tell us your resolution yet." Piper changed the subject, turning on Prue. "Do you even have one?"

"Yes." Prue's expression lightened at this.

"Then what is it?" Piper begged.

"It's a secret! You know that." Prue taunted.

"If you don't tell us, then we'll say you don't have one." Piper responded.

"Okay," Prue relented. "I'll tell you my resolution if Phoebe admits she made up a fake ghost."

Piper tensed, waiting for the inevitable argument to fire back up, but fortunately, Phoebe's curiosity got the better of her.

"I made up a fake ghost." Phoebe reluctantly but quickly admitted, impatient. "Now, tell us!"

Prue didn't think Phoebe sounded very sincere in her confession. She paused, gazing into space, building suspense and knowing her sisters were dying to know what she was thinking. She pretended to ponder for a few long moments and then finally announced. "All right. I am going to get Andy to ask me out this year. _That's_ my resolution."

Phoebe giggled with delight.

"It isn't a laughing matter, Phoebe!" Prue scolded. "I didn't want to say it in front of Grams but I thought I could at least trust you two."

"Of course you can trust us, Prue." Piper amended quickly. "But how are you going to do it? Why don't you just ask Andy out?"

"Because." Prue answered as though it was the obvious assumption, "It's cleverer- and not to mention more fun- to get _him_ to like _me_. Because then I won't have to admit that I like him or risk him saying no to my proposal. All I have to do is say yes when he asks me."

"Andy already likes you." Phoebe reminded her.

"No, Prue wants to be his _Girlfriend."_ Piper corrected. "Prue's going to make him fall in love with her. Right, Prue?"

"Yep! That sounds about right!" Prue exclaimed. "I mean, how hard can it be? He already likes me. I just have to get him to like me even more! And wear pretty clothes whenever I see him, of course."

"I wish boys liked me." Piper sighed wistfully.

"Don't worry, Piper." Prue assured her, grinning. "Just wait 'till you're my age! They will be all over you!"

"Well, I like girls better than boys anyway." Phoebe stated.

"When you get older, you'll realize why boys are so amazing." Piper replied.

Prue shrugged. "Piper's right. Just wait for it, Phoebe." She exchanged glances with Piper. Their little sister just didn't understand.

"Grams says girls are _always _better than boys. In each and every way." Phoebe quoted.

"Yeah, well Grams believes in creepy fairy tails, too, doesn't she?" Prue countered. "She doesn't have the last word on _everything_, you know. She only thinks she does."

Phoebe didn't understand what Prue meant about "the last word". But she knew Prue was putting her down again, and this time Phoebe didn't know how to argue back. So she sulked, quietly, tired of being brushed off by her oldest sister for the hundredth time this evening, glaring at Prue, who either continued to ignore her or wasn't paying her any attention.

Piper, still wearing the wedding dress, lay back on one sleeping bag and yawned exhaustedly. The cool, soft pillow felt just right against her head and her sore, tired eyes felt immense relief when she closed them. "Let's go to bed now." She moaned tiredly, wiggling into the snuggly sleeping bag and pulling the covers over her body. "Umph Muffmmmph" she added, to the pillow.

"Yeah, me, too," Prue responded although she wasn't exactly sure what Piper had been trying to articulate. She crawled over Piper and slid into her own sleeping bag.

Phoebe sat on her own and felt overwhelmingly tired, too. But she sat quietly and waited for her sisters to fall asleep, so she could look at her mother's things on her own, or perhaps something else. She really wanted to do anything but sleep.

"Go to bed, Phoebe." Came Prue's prodding voice as though she had eyes in the back of her sleeping head, or maybe just very good ears.

"I will, Prue," Phoebe promised. Then, she quietly lifted the Spirit Board and carried it next to her sleeping bag, where she set it back down and climbed under the covers on her stomach with her head on her arms on the pillow facing the board so she could play with it without Prue bothering her about not being in bed. After another careful glance at her sister's seemingly asleep form, Phoebe positioned the Spirit Pointer in the center of the board and stared at it.

Nothing happened.

Phoebe boredly moved the pointer across each letter in order, singing the alphabet song quietly in her head as so not to wake up the sleeping dragon next to her.

Suddenly, as if by an invisible force, the pointer shot in the opposite direction so fast that it slid out from under her fingers. Just as instantly, it stopped, quivering, hovering just slightly over the letter K.

"Prue?" Phoebe whispered in the dark. Prue did not respond. "Prue!" Phoebe called louder. Still no reply.

Phoebe coughed very, very loudly. Prue did not tell her to "either go get some water or shut up and go to sleep", or say anything else for that matter; Phoebe only heard silence. Her sisters were truly asleep.

The pointer jerked again, and the settled on the E inscription. KE? It probably wasn't done spelling the whole word yet. Phoebe suddenly had a fear that this word might be a long one. What if she didn't recognize the word, or forgot some of the letters? This was the most exciting and important message she could _ever _receive, and she didn't want to miss a second of it.

The pointer spun, raced around the board, and then came back to the E to rest. Phoebe hastily grabbed a pen from the floor next to the Clue game and scrawled _K E E_ on the wood of the attic floor. She had to press extra hard but it was all she had. No one cared what condition the floor was up here, anyway, and it was likely Grams wouldn't notice writing on the floor in a million years. The pointer moved to the letter P, still all of its own accord, but it was speeding up now, faster and faster and with less time between letters.

The pointer whizzed from letter to letter, again and again and again, seeming as though it would never end. Phoebe routinely wrote them on the floor. Finally, the pointer hovered slowly to the middle of the board where it stopped, fell and rested, motionless. Phoebe made out the letters in front of her. It could be a whole sentence, or more, but it looked like a jumble right now. For all Phoebe knew, it could have been Japanese in this state.

Nevertheless, Phoebe was determined to make full sense out of this, even if it took her until the sun came up. And if she couldn't do it on her own without falling asleep first, then she would have no choice but to ask Grams or Piper tomorrow. Although, they'd no doubt ask why, and Phoebe would have no way to explain without telling the truth. They'd never believe it anyway, and would probably both scold her for writing on the floor.

Phoebe needed to work this one all by herself. And it was now or never.

The longer she worked, however, the easier it became to put the spaces in the correct spots and form words. It wasn't _too_ tricky; it only _looked_ complicated. About ten minutes later, she had established the whole message. Phoebe read the words now on the floor:

_Keep Your Resolutions Phoebe I will be Watching and I Love You_

Phoebe could only guess what this meant. Her heart was beating excitedly- dare she conclude that her dead mother had sent her a message from beyond the grave? It was unbelievable, but oh! How desperately Phoebe wanted to believe it could be true! And who else could have sent those words? There was no one else, she decided. It had to have been her mother. It _had_ to have been.

Phoebe believed it.

She fell asleep as dawn's first light crept in through the windows, but even after she woke up, Phoebe did not forget the ghostly message. It thrilled and excited her, and sometimes she felt like she would burst the urge to tell Piper, Prue, or Grams all about it. But every time she had the chance, Phoebe hesitated. Deep down, she knew they wouldn't take her seriously about this. Prue would scoff, Piper would tell Phoebe what a sweet story it was, and Grams would probably smile mysteriously in that infuriating way grown-ups sometimes did and not say anything at all.

But more special than that as the fact that the moment belonged to Phoebe only and no one else. She was convinced that the message had been meant for her alone to see, otherwise, why did her mother only move the pointer after her sisters had fallen asleep and were no longer watching? Because her sisters would have assumed she was pretending all over again. They would have called Phoebe a liar twice. Prue and Piper would not have seen the magic even if it was right in front of their faces, they would have chosen to believe it was a trick. They, unlike Phoebe, were not children anymore.

As Phoebe grew older, she would wonder if perhaps she'd only imagined this event, but those wonderings were only halfhearted efforts. Because the words were still on the attic floorboards in Phoebe's writing, proving that it had not been her imagination. Phoebe always trusted her instinct. She liked to believe that anything was possible.

Maybe it was magic, or maybe it was something else, but there was certainly something _there_. It might not be able to be seen or touched or heard, but it was still there, felt by everyone in the room sometimes and other times lying dormant, just waiting for the right person to come at the right time, to "wake" the magic back up.

Many years later, the sisters would all be grown up and caring for themselves, and only sometimes caring for each other. Prue would be strong, stubborn and soaring fast in the workplace and other such aspects of her life, Piper would be hardworking and trustworthy but shy as ever, and Phoebe directionless, wild, and carefree but never truly lost. Phoebe kept her inner child close with her the entire time just in case she needed it.

And most of all, Phoebe never completely stopped believing in magic.  
...not really.

_The End_


End file.
